China’s travel booking platform ctrip.com has removed the Evergreen Laurel Hotel in Shanghai from its listings after the chain’s Paris venue banned the Chinese national flag during the 2024 Summer Olympics, sparking an Internet furor.
The story — which had garnered 110 million views on Sina Weibo — had since been removed from the platform’s list of most popular posts.
On Monday, a Chinese influencer known as Instructor Zhang (張教官) accused the Evergreen Laurel Hotel in Paris of refusing his request for the Chinese flag to be displayed at the venue in a video uploaded to TikTok.
Photo: Screen grab from the Web site of the Evergreen Laurel Hotel in Paris
A person purported to be a Chinese chef employed at the hotel was shown in the video as saying that the hotel’s Taiwanese general manager had ordered the staff to remove a Chinese flag previously flown there.
The video went viral on Chinese social media, with Sina Weibo briefly listing “Evergreen Laurel Hotel’s Taiwanese manager cut down a red five-starred flag” as its second-most-popular search term.
Guoshi Zhitongche (國是直通車), an outlet affiliated with China’s state-owned Xinhua news agency, shared the video on Weibo, noting that Taiwan and China are listed as the same territory in the hotel’s booking system for the Asia region.
Beijing officials and state media gave no comments regarding the controversy in a rare display of reticence.
When asked, Evergreen Hotels, which manages the hotels, said the franchise was sorry for failing to provide the best possible experience to its customers, adding that it is taking steps to ensure all patrons would be properly accommodated.
The franchise issued a separate statement in China admitting that its handling of the situation was “less than perfect” and that the corporation “does not wish to see the incident negatively impact the goodwill between the peoples across the strait.”
Commenting on condition of anonymity, a hotel employee in Shanghai said ctrip.com has apparently blocked key terms relating to the establishment, preventing potential customers from accessing its listing on the travel booking site.
The hotel’s official Web site remains available to the public, they said.
The Central News Agency has independently verified these claims.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) tendered his resignation last night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by media. His resignation was immediately accepted by the Control Yuan. In a statement explaining why he had resigned, Lee apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon on May 20. The issue first came to light late last month, when TVBS News reported that Lee had instructed his driver to take the dog to the salon. The news channel broadcast photos that it said were taken by an unnamed whistle-blower, which purportedly showed the
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
RSS